[2] The recordings were produced by the band's bassist Bryan Richie and mixed at Magpie Cage Studios in Baltimore, Maryland by J. Robbins, who also mixed High Country and had previously produced the band's 2012 fourth studio album Apocryphon.

AllMusic's James Christopher Monger claimed that it "delivers on its promise of "The Sword: Unplugged," emitting its own curious current of intimacy, leaving the listener both transfixed and uneasy".

[5] Monger highlighted tracks such as "Empty Temples" and "Mist & Shadow", but criticised "Seriously Mysterious" and "Ghost Eye" for feeling "a bit weightless".

[5] Jeremy Ulrey for Metal Injection criticised many songs on the album in a track-by-track review, claiming that the album "mostly reaffirms that only about half of these songs bear any real heft to them at all", although he did praise the renditions of "Mist & Shadow", "Seriously Mysterious" and "Early Snow".

[7] Michael Toland of The Austin Chronicle hailed the album for presenting "genuine creative advancement", in particular claiming that the acoustic format suited frontman John D. Cronise's vocals more than the band's regular style.